Warlock Apprentice

A greenish figure walked among the crowd until it reached the front. Then the figure knelt down in front of Angor.

“Mister, I shall listen to your command with all my heart.”

She was a young Krakok girl in a green bubble skirt. Her gesture made her skirt spread a little on the floor like a newborn sapling ready to welcome the first spring.

Both Angor and Shadow knew that face. She was the first Krakok they encountered in Soul Genesis Garden—Papaya from Seedling Village.

Angor glanced at the grand priest. He believed this old man intentionally ordered the girl to present herself.

There was something in Papaya’s eyes. It seemed she wanted to say something else, yet she did nothing more than showing her absolute obedience to Angor.

With someone to set off the domino effect, another Krakok boy who had been looking at Papaya affectionately also knelt down, followed by his parents. One after one, all Krakoks now had their knees on the floor as they showed their respect to Angor.

Seeing this, the old priest stroked his beard and smiled with tears around his eye corner. He once heard Angor mentioning Papaya’s name so he made this selection starting from Seedling Village. Of course, Papaya was among the “candidates”.

Angor patiently waited for the crowd to quiet down before he finally nodded.

He already agreed to take the Krakoks away, and now, he had to decide where to put them.

Eighty-one seemed like a big number, but these creatures were tiny. A moderate-sized box should be enough to hold them all.

His bracelet had enough space for them, but he couldn’t just stuff them in there randomly since there were other precious items in the space storage. He couldn’t afford the time to constantly check what was going on in his stash.

Thinking about this, he picked out a piece of ebony wood—common, non-tiered material—from his bracelet and skillfully put it inside Thaw while using Hand of Spell to carve it. Two minutes later, a miniature wooden skyscraper based on the buildings he saw from Earth movies appeared on the desk.

The “model” stood about 4 meters high. A round base was fixed below it to steady the building.

All the Krakoks exclaimed in awe at the amazing sight.

Angor pointed at Papaya. “You, come.”

The girl pointed at herself and looked around only to notice that she was the one being asked. She then slowly walked toward the building on uncertain steps.

“What’s your name?” Angor pretended he didn’t know her.

Papaya was briefly surprised before she quickly understood Angor’s intention. “Papaya, mister. My name is Papaya.”

“Good. So, Papaya, you will be the leader of your small traveling clan for now.” Angor pointed at the building model. “This skyscraper has 15 floors and about a hundred rooms. You shall be responsible for the arrangement of your people inside.”

“For us?” Papaya seemed very happy. “Understood! Thank you, mister!”

“You have an hour.”

The building structure was something new to Krakoks, but the design was simple enough. He didn’t need to do explanations.

Papaya bowed and put on a serious look in front of others. “Everyone, follow me and gather under the skyscra… Skyscraper!”

While Papaya did her job, Angor signaled at the old priest and asked him to come.

The old man nodded and followed Angor out of the palace.

Shadow cast a curious glance at Angor and didn’t follow. Instead, he began to scan the small building with his spirit feelers. Every floor inside was finely arranged with seven to eight rooms. The rooms weren’t big, but they all had their small balconies. Also, none of the rooms had doors or furniture inside. However, there were spare materials lying around, which meant Angor wanted the Krakoks to perfect their own living space.

“Ohh, he even left them something to kill time on the trip.” Shadow would admit that he appreciated Angor’s thoughtfulness.

…

Outside the palace, Angor spoke to the grand priest.

“I can help them carry any Krakok-related properties too. Vegetables, books, livestock, or art… as long as there aren’t too many.”

He offered this because he wanted the Krakoks to keep some of their own possessions. They wouldn’t quite inherit the blood of Krakok if they started EVERYTHING anew.

The old priest looked at Angor silently before he went for his hummingbird again.

“I now believe that it is our fate to meet with you, young mister.”

Angor snickered. He didn’t believe in such things.

About an hour later, the grand priest returned with all the clerics as well as a team of hummingbird knights.

The clerics were carrying the wisdom of their race—scrolls, parchments, and books made from pattra leaves.

The knights had miscellaneous items representing their daily lives. Handicrafts, seeds, and seedlings. Some of them even had struggling animal whelps in their ropes.

“Young mister, are these…?” Clearly, the old priest thought they brought too much.

Angor didn’t say anything. The Krakoks were small, so were their possessions. “Too much” in their eyes basically meant an extra handful for Angor. If he wasn’t looking closely, he’d have thought the book-carrying clerics just brought him some sand.

Next, Angor found some fertile dirt on the ground and returned inside the palace. He distributed the dirt inside several square-shaped slots on the skyscraper’s base so that the Krakok could grow food during their journey.

All the clerics and knights also stared at the amazing structure in wonder. Then, following Papaya’s command, they began to load their legacy into the new home of the immigrants.

It took another quarter for everything to complete.

Angor asked the clerics and knights to leave the building. He then deployed several illusion nodes around it.

It was a simple illusion that prevented the residents of the building from wandering away.

“Now, say your last goodbye to your old home. You won’t be seeing it again.”

Almost all Krakoks began to cry over their sadness.

Angor didn’t intend to care about how the Krakoks managed their mood. He went to find Papaya, who was sitting on the entrance stairs of the skyscraper, behind her people.

“Did you have something to tell me?” Angor used Sound Transmission to talk to her.

The Krakok girl was puzzled by the voice that suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She then saw Angor looking right at her quietly.

“Mister—”

“Keep your voice down. I can hear you.”

Angor already noticed Papaya had some other idea hidden behind her calm expression. The girl didn’t say it in front of others just to be considerate, and Angor would approve her wise choice.

The girl obviously wanted to ask for help. Yet asking it out in the open would place Angor in a somewhat awkward situation. Now that they could talk in private, Angor didn’t have to worry about the opinions of the other Krakoks.

“Mister, I’m the only family my granny has. If I leave her and never come back, she will, she will—” Her eyes quickly brimmed with tears when thinking about her elderly grandmother.

“You want me to take your grandmother too?”

Papaya nodded.

“I don’t know how long this journey will take, and it probably won’t be easy. There will be unknown incidents and dangers. Are you sure you want this? Does she really want to leave? Can you decide for her?”

Papaya considered and nodded again. She and her grandmother needed each other, and she definitely would not leave her only family behind in loneliness.

“Okay, since you said so. I’ll go find her before leaving. Mind that if anything bad happens because of this, you’ll be the one to take responsibility.”

Angor then returned to the old priest again. “It’s time for us to leave.”

He waved a hand to move the small skyscraper into his bracelet. There was still crying voices coming from the building.

The old priest stared at the now empty space in front of him in both sadness and expectation.

“Thank you, young mister…” He knelt down and placed his head on the surface of the desk again. All the clerics followed his example, while the armored knights removed their helmets and went down on one knee.

“Get up. Their future is still unknown. Don’t thank me yet.” Angor then looked at Shadow, who had been enjoying their little drama. “Let’s go.”

Shadow nodded. The pair added with a beautiful puppet lady leaped over the kneeing Krakoks and disappeared.

The Krakoks waited for a long time. One of the clerics tried to assist their priest to stand up, only to accidentally knock the old man’s body over and revealing a pale face.

They finally realized that their beloved priest had already passed away. There were still tears that lingered on the old man’s cheeks, yet he was still smiling during his last moment.

…

Angor and Shadow heard someone chanting when they walked past the holy mountain.

At the peak of the mountain, a choir group was singing Hymns of Fairies again, with their eyes closed. The one taking the lead was the young Krakok lady who had been elected as the “key singer” during the ceremony.

The sun of a new day was shining its benevolence over everyone.

“O the first warrior, he who brought his sword upon the morning garden and found the first rose for the red queen…”

“O the second warrior, who hides in the lands of serpents and waits for the next dawn, away from evil humans…”

“O the third warrior, who spreads his wings and joined the song of Grand Priest. Together, they waited for the third beloved patron…”

“O the fourth warrior… He reveals the sky gate, accompanied by light and holy chants, is the fourth soul hidden in the black tome…”

However, the poem didn’t stop here. Using the same, angelic voice, Krakoks from Sky Choir began to cite a brand new, fifth paragraph of their story.

“O the last warrior… your brilliance reveals us a path in the forlorn fog. O souls lost in despair… pray follow the light to our daybreak…”